Gone Medieval - King Charles VI of France

Episode Date: October 22, 2022

On 21 October 1422 - 600 years ago - King Charles VI of France died at the age of 53 after reigning for 42 years. He was known as both Charles le Bien-Aimé (the Beloved) and Charles le Fou (the Mad) - the latter a reference to the mental health episodes that frequently dogged his life. Because he was a king, his health is better documented than most cases of mental illness in the Medieval period.In this explainer episode of Gone Medieval, Matt Lewis recounts the story of a man whose life was plagued with personal tragedy and illness, played out on the international stage - because he was a king.The Senior Producer on this episode was Elena Guthrie. It was edited by Aidan Lonergan and produced by Rob Weinberg.For more Gone Medieval content, subscribe to our Medieval Monday newsletter here.If you'd like to learn even more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download, go to Android or Apple store. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From long-loss Viking ships and kings buried in unexpected places to tales of murder, power, faith, and the lives of ordinary people across medieval Europe and beyond. Join me, Matt Lewis, Dr. Eleanor Jarniger, and some of the world's leading historians as we bring history's most fascinating stories to life, only on history hit. With your subscription, you'll unlock hundreds of hours of exclusive documentaries

with a brand-new release every week exploring everything from the ancient world. to World War II. Just visit historyhit.com forward slash subscribe. Welcome to this episode of Gone Medieval. I'm Matt Lewis. Today, I'd like to take you through the remarkable tale of a man whose life is a story of personal tragedy and illness for him and his family played out on the international stage because he was a king. On the 21st of October 1422, 600 years ago this year, King Charles the 6th of France died. He was 53 years old and had been king of France for 42 years since 1880.

It was common for medieval French monarchs to be given nicknames. During his lifetime, Charles was known as Charles Le Bien Amé, the beloved. But he's more often remembered now by a different epithet, Charles Le Folle, Charles the Mad. It's a reference to his mental health issues that frequently dole his reign and have overshadowed his story. Because he was a king, his problems are better documented than most cases of mental illness in the medieval period. Given when he ruled France during the hundred years' war and spanning the reigns of Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, and just tipping

into Henry VI in England, his health was a central factor in international politics, but it doesn't tell his whole story. Charles was born on the 3rd of December 1316. He was the oldest son of Charles V and his wife, Joanna of Bourbon. Charles V was King of France from 1364 until his death in 1380. He oversaw the creation of a standing army paid by the crown, restored law and order, and took back much of the land, ceded to England after the early successes of the Hundred Years' War. Charles VIII left a strong military position and a replenished royal treasury.

Joanna of Bourbon was the daughter of the Duke of Bourbon. She married Charles V in 1350 when they were both 12 years old. She seems to have struggled with her mental health. After the birth of her son Louis in 1373, Joanna had a complete mental breakdown. Charles V was so terrified for his wife that he made pilgrimages and prayed desperately for her recovery. Once apparently healed, she was made legal guardian of France, enough her son if he should become king as a minor. But that would not come to pass. Joanna died in 1378, two years before her husband. Mental health issues seem to have been part

of Joanna's family story. Her father is noted as suffering nervous breakdowns, as well as her own problems Joanna's brother Louis seems to have suffered too. Joanna's grandfather also had episodes of mental ill health, suggesting a strong hereditary predisposition to such complications. Charles VI became King of France on the death of his father on the 16th of September 1380 at the age of 11. He was crowned on the 4th of November at Ream Cathedral, the traditional location for the coronation of Capetian kings. Charles was a member of the Valois dynasty, a cadet branch of the Capetian line. The House of Caput, named for Hugh Caput, its founder, ruled France in the direct male line between 987 and the House. 1328. It was the end of this male line of dissent that led in part to the Hundred Years' War,

when Edward III of England's claim was overlooked in favour of Philip the 6th, a grandson of Philip III and the son of the Count of Valois, thus beginning the line of kings of the House of Valois and sparking problems with England. As Charles VI was a minor and his mother, who had been designated a potential regent, had already passed away. He was represented by his uncles. Although it was possible for a king to be considered to have reached the age of majority at 14, Charles would remain under the control of his regents until he was 21. Whether this spoke to concerns about his mental health or to the greed of his uncles is hard to determine. Charles' paternal uncles were Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy,

who was by far the most influential of the regents. Louis I, Duke of Anjou, who was a bit of a political failure and was too preoccupied. trying to press his own claim to be King of Naples to help out his nephew much. Louis died in 1384, just four years after Charles became king. John, Duke of Berry, was mainly concerned with his post as Lieutenant General of the Long Dock Region in southern France, where, as we'll see, rebellion kept him busy. John outlived his brothers and later tried to facilitate peace between the factions that erupted in France. The other uncle added to the regency was Charles' maternal uncle, Louis the second

Duke of Bourbon. The dual problems of his lack of status since he wasn't the son of a king, and his mental instability meant that he played very little practical role in governing France during the minority. Charles V had left a stable and wealthy kingdom. His brothers shredded all of that hard work. They used crown money and political authority for their own ends and were then forced to implement taxation that Charles V had abolished on his deathbed. The cancelling of taxation was obviously popular, but it ignored the reality of the financial needs of a kingdom frequently at war. The policy of reintroducing the war taxes was, needless to say, deeply unpopular. I mean, who likes taxes or government U-turns? It led to a series of tax

revolts, known as the Harelle in 1382. Plague and war had left France ravaged and immoralised. The previous year had seen the peasants revolt in England against the imposition of excessive rounds of taxation. At the beginning of 1382, Philip the Bold had failed to convince the French administration to accept new taxes. He summoned representatives of the city of Paris before the young king and forced them to accept a tax known as the Gabel, a tax on the sale of salt. A tax on the sale of salt and the reintroduction of customs duties. News of this reached Rouen, the capital of Normandy and France's second largest city. Lying directly in England's line of sight whenever it gazed on Paris, Normandy and Ruan

had seen some of the hardest effects of the Hundred Years' War so far. The city was in no mood to roll over and on the 24th of February the people took to the streets, shutting the city gates and looting the property of the wealthy. Philip the Bold raised an army, put his nephew the 13-year-old Charles on a horse and rode out toward Ruan. I wonder whether he had heard of the young Richard II's exploits in England and sought to use his nephew in the same manner. Either way, they never reached Ruan. Two days after leaving Paris, riots erupted there and they were forced to turn back. It took days of violence, siege and negotiation before the royal forces entered Paris again,

by which time the unrest had spread to other French cities. The Duke of Berry was occupied trying to regain control of the Long Dock. The ringleaders in Paris were promised clemency, but were rounded up and executed. Philip then took Charles to Rouen, which surrendered without a fight. A dozen of the leading rebels were executed. The city gates were removed, a fine was imposed, and its charter was revoked. The financial problems caused by these tax riots, contributed to the agreement to the Treaty of Lillingham in 1389,

ending what is considered the second phase of the Hundred Years' War with England. Charles had taken control of his government in 1888, replacing his uncles with a group of ministers that his father had used. This group was known as the Marmosette, a name recorded by the chronicler Jean Frasar. It was meant to mean monkey, the same as a marmazette, but was also a name that the French used for the English, presumably because we were such naughty little monkeys invading their lands and killing their people. The removal of his unpopular uncles and a new period of peace with England

led to the nickname Charles the Beloved. All was not to remain well for long though. In 1392, Charles suffered his first recorded instance of mental illness. He was 23 and it set a heartbreaking pattern for the rest of his life. The contemporary chronicler Jean Frassard relates that the king was on his way to begin a military campaign in Brittany. It was August and the weather was unbearably hot. As the Royal Party rode through a forest near Le Mans, Foucassar tells us, a man bareheaded with naked feet clothed in a jerkin of white russet that showed he was more mad than otherwise, rushed out from among the trees and boldly seized the reins of the king's

horse. Having thus stopped him, he said, King, ride no farther, but return, for thou art betrayed. This speech made such an impression on the king's mind, which was weak, that his understanding was shaken. The old man ran away and was not chased. The royal party rode on, emerging into open plains. As the heat intensified, the party spread out. According to Fwasar, Charles rode alone to avoid the dust being kicked up by other horses, followed only by two of his pages. In the heat of the day, the page at the back who carried a lance, fell asleep or lost

consciousness and dropped the weapon. It hit a helmet carried on the horse of the page in front and the clash rang out harshly around the open ground. Fassar picks up the story, writing that the king, being so near, the pages rode almost on the heels of his horse, was startled and shuddered. For he had in his mind the words the wise man or fool had spoken when he seized the horse's reins in the forest of Le Mans, and fancied a host of enemies were come to slay him. In this distraction of mind, he drew his sword and advanced on the pages, for his senses were quite gone, and imagined himself surrounded by enemies, giving blows of his sword, indifferent on whom they fell, and bawled out. Advance! Advance on these traitors! The pages spurred their horses in different

directions. The king's brother, Louis, Duke of Orleans, drew his sword to come to Charles's aid, only for the king to mistake him for an attacker and charge him. Charles chased various men of his party until he was exhausted. None dared raise their sword even in defence. Although Fawasar says he didn't hear of anyone being killed, other sources claim that several were left dead by the king's frenzied attack. Eventually, one of his chamberlains grabbed him. His sword was taken and he was dismounted, laid on the ground to get some shade and some air. Fwasar says next that his three uncles and brother reproached, but he had lost all knowledge of them, showing no symptoms of acquaintance or affection, but rolled his eyes in his head without speaking to anyone.

He then reflected that it must be owned that when all things are considered, it was a great pity for a king of France who was the most noble and powerful prince in the world to be thus suddenly deprived of his senses. There could not be any remedy applied, nor any amendment expected, since God willed it should be so. There was concern that the king had been poisoned or bewitched, but no evidence of either could be found, and his physicians confirmed that he was prone to bouts of illness such as this. Charles' chief physician gave his medical opinion. This disorder of the king proceeds from the alarm in the forest

and by inheriting too much of his mother's weak nerves. When the court had offered their thanks, in terms of a lack of feces and a detective, they set about working out how to rule the kingdom while the king was incapacitated. Eventually it was decided that Charles' brother, Louis was too young and inexperienced, so his two remaining paternal uncles, the Dukes of Burgundy and Bury, became regents again, with Philip the Bold, the Duke of Burgundy,

placed in the senior position. Charles had married Isabel, daughter of the Duke of Bavaria, in 1385. She was heavily pregnant when her husband fell ill, and it was kept from her for a long time to avoid causing her any alarm. The Duchess of Burgundy was placed with the Queen to support her and to reinforce the position of the House of Burgundy as second only to the king and queen. The Pope, filled with his Christian charity, rejoiced at the news of Charles' illness, claiming it was the result of the king's support for the anti-pop at Avignon.

Clearly, God was annoyed and trying to tell Charles to mind his own business. The antipope reflected on the support Charles had given him and publicly proclaimed that Charles had bought this on himself by failing to destroy the antipope in Rome. No, you're an answer. antipope, I know you are, but what am I? Wow, way to go, medieval Roman church. A physician named William de Harsini by now 92, but one-time doctor to Charles' father, was sent to oversee the king's treatment. Wax effigies of Charles were sent to shrines of saints

who might intervene in such cases. Doctors laboured, monks prayed, tapers burned, regents took control, and Charles lay in a coma. Fassar lamented that Charles was, Far out of the way. No medicine could help him. The Kingdom of France, he pondered ominously, seems likely to fall into much trouble. Charles did emerge from his disorientating illness, but it would revisit him at regular intervals for the rest of his life. He fell ill in August 1392, and although his recovery isn't well recorded, he was well enough to attend a party on the 29th of January 1393. His doctor advised shielding him from stress, prescribing fun and distraction whenever possible, but it didn't go well.

The party is remembered as the Ball des Argent, the ball of the burning men, which might give a hint at what went wrong. The masquerade was held at the Hotel Saint-Paul in Paris, a royal residence where Charles had been born. It was organised by Queen Isabel to celebrate the marriage of one of her ladies in waiting. She perhaps had an eye to the doctor's advice to keep Charles distracted and free from stress. The king and five of his young companions erupted onto the dance floor disguised as wild men. Their costumes and masks were made of linen with flax attacks with resin to give the appearance of shaggy savages. They danced frantically about the floor, howling and shouting

as they encouraged the audience to try and guess their identities. precisely what happened next isn't entirely clear. It may be that Charles's brother, the Duke of Orleans, grabbed a torch to try and see one of the wild men's faces better. A spark dropped onto the man's leg, and he burst into flames. The resin used to attach the flax didn't help, and soon the other costumed men were on fire too. Queen Isobo knew her husband was one of them and fainted in fear,

but the king was a little apart from the rest, and his 15-year-old aunt, the Duchess of Bury, threw her skirts over him to protect him from the sparks and flames. Chaos erupted as guests screamed in pain as they were burned too. Efforts were made to save the men, most still fearing the king was amongst those on fire. The chronicler, known as the monk of Sandinie, left us a horrifically graphic image of the scene. Men, prepare to wince. Ladies, try not to laugh. The monk wrote that four men were burned alive, their flaming genitals.

menaceous, dropping to the floor, releasing a stream of blood. Only two men survived. Charles was safe beneath the Duchess of Berries's skirts, and another had managed to jump into a vat of open wine to extinguish the flames. Paris was outraged at the danger the king had been placed in. His uncles did public penance at Notre Dame Cathedral, and his brother Louis, Duke of Orleans, who was blamed by most, paid for a chapel to be built. There were some who thought Charles had done it deliberately to try and kill his brother, This kind of suspicion around the Duke would prove hard to shake off.

Charles' episodes of mental illness came with a worrying regularity and a deepening intensity from now onwards for the rest of his life. In 1393, the same year as the doomed party, the King made his wife co-guardian of their children, principal guardian of their heir, the dauphin, but made his brother, Orleans, regent, if required. However, when Charles began to fall ill more regularly, isobo was frequently at the head of a regency council.

There was lots of debate about whether anyone could be regent for a living monarch who was incapacitated by illness. The regency council headed by the Queen was the compromise that was reached. This made Isabel more powerful than Charles' brother or his uncles and shows the faith both the king and the body politic of France had in her. Hi there, I'm Don Wildman, the host of the brand new podcast, American History Hit. Join me twice a week as I explore the past to help us understand the United States today. You'll hear how codebreakers uncovered secret Japanese plans for the Battle of Midway.

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From 1393, frequent periods of illness interspersed with times when he was entirely lucid, came to dominate Charles' life and French politics. During one episode that year, Charles couldn't remember his own name and had no idea that he was king. In 1394, Charles suddenly issued an edict, spelling all Jews from France, though it's unclear whether this was a result of his illness or simply a reflection of prevailing attitudes to Jewish communities in Christian Western Europe. In 1395 and 1396, Charles was convinced he was St George. Frequently, he would roam the royal palaces or even run about the corridors at night,

so that the entrances had to be bricked up to prevent him from wandering outside. In 1405, he refused to wash or change his clothes for five months. Pope Pius II described Charles often believing that he was made of glass and would shatter if anyone touched him. He would become agitated when courtiers got too close and reportedly had iron bars sewn into his clothes to protect him from being smashed to pieces. The description of Charles' illness became less detailed as the years go by,

perhaps because the symptoms were often the same or because it was felt unwise to dwell on them. Some of the worst episodes from a family perspective must have been those during which Charles failed to recognise his wife or his children. The monk of Sandinie wrote of the hurt this caused Queen Isabel when she tried to visit her husband. What distressed her above all was to see how, on all occasions, the king repulsed her, whispering to his people,

who is this woman obstructing my view, find out what she wants and stop her from annoying and buying. bothering me. Since her presence distressed her husband, Isobo moved to another palace, something that's frequently used to suggest that she spurned him, when in fact, the opposite is clear. She seemed to be trying to ease his anxiety by removing herself. A mistress was provided for Charles, perhaps with Isobo's consent. Oddly, the lady was said to resemble Isobo so much that she was dubbed the little queen. Despite this, the royal couple did have more children, children, and Isobo was recorded in Charles' company when he was well and lucid.

In 1396, he was involved in arranging the marriage of his daughter Isabella of Valois to King Richard II of England, thus halting hostilities between the kingdoms for a time. When Charles' uncle, Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, died in 1404, he was succeeded by his son, John the Fearless, Charles' cousin. John tried to get access to royal funds, but Isabel and Orlion kept him away. believing that, like his father, he would seek to waste it on personal projects. John reacted with a propaganda campaign that accused Isobo and Orlion of financial mismanagement, and rumours also sprang up, perhaps again begun by John,

that the king's wife and his brother were having an affair. The political stability of France, which had been remarkable given the frequent debilitating incapacity of the king, and had been helped by internal problems in England in particular, was brutally shattered in 1407. As night darkened the streets of Paris on the evening of the 23rd of November, Louis Duke of Orleans set out to visit his brother the king. Three days earlier, there had been a public display

of reconciliation and unity among the royal princes of France. Charles was well, and word reached Louis that the king wished to see him. At 8 o'clock in the evening, he mounted his horse, accompanied by a small guard. The Duke was dragged down. down from the saddle as 15 men sprang out from the darkness. His shouts that he was the Duke of Orleon and the King's brother only seemed to incense the attackers further. One of Louis's attendants was wounded while trying to protect his master, but to no avail. Louis's hand was cut

off and he was beaten, stabbed and clubbed to death. His broken body was left in the street. A witness identified one of the attackers as a servant of the Duke of Burgundy. When John the Fearless was confronted, he shrugged his shoulders. Yeah, he ordered the King's brother's murder. He denied nothing, admitted to sending men to do it, and what's more, ordered a Paris theologian named Jean Petit to explain why it was a good thing. Petit delivered an oration that made the case for killing a tyrant who assumed royal authority. Anyone should be allowed to do it at any time, without the need for orders or the fear of recriminations.

The closer the tyrant was in blood to the king, the worse the crime. the closer the murderer, the more the act should be celebrated. Orlion was unpopular. He favoured taxation and the cause of the anti-pope. Yes, one of those is back again. So John made the case that Orlean was a tyrant and that being the king's brother made it worse, that John had done a good deed, a public service by killing the tyrant,

and that because John was the king's cousin, the act was even more worthy of praise. John the fearless got away with murder. Literally. Not only that, but he became the leading political force in Paris. Louis's son, Charles, the new Duke of Orleans, was just 13 years old, but lines were drawn in a bitter civil conflict. The adherents of the Duke of Burgundy, known as the Burgundians, fought the adherence of the Duke of Orleans. While Charles was young, he was counselled by his father-in-law, Bernard VIII, Count of Armagnac. The Aureon faction took their name from Bernard's title,

becoming known as the Armagnac's. The Armagnac-Bagh-Bugundian feud tore France apart for the next 28 years. It was this fracture in French polity, slow to come, but devastating when it did arrive, that facilitated the renewal of the Hundred Years' War. Henry V came to the throne in England in 1413 and set about arranging an invasion of France.

It would help him unify his country and divert attention from the rebellions his father had suffered, but France was also a soft target. The King was ill and the nobles were busy fighting each other. When Henry attacked, France was unable to unite to defend itself. At Agincourt in 1415, a small English force defeated a much larger army, the flower of French chivalry, mainly because the French lacked a single leader to organise them. Charles Duke of Orleans was among those captured at Agincourt and remained an English prisoner for the next 25 years. His removal from the political landscape did nothing to end the troubles though.

In 1419, another assassination escalated the war with England. Charles Eyre, the Dofan, was now his fifth son, the future Charles I, 7th. As well as five sons, including one younger than the Dofan, the royal couple had lost two daughters by this time. They now had four living daughters and one remaining son. The Dofan was 16 years old. He'd met with the Duke of Burgundy several times. through the year to try and clear the air, to heal the Armagnac-Bugundian rift that was demonstrably placing all of France at risk. Eventually, the pair agreed to a formal alliance to be sealed

at a meeting on a bridge over the River Sen at Montereau on the 10th of September 1419. Doors were placed at either end of the bridge to create a room for the meeting to take place. It was agreed that the Dofan and John would each take just ten men inside with them. When the meeting began, John the Fearless knelt in deference to the Dofan, who ignored him. John rose, offended, and placed his hand on the pommel of his sword as an expression of his annoyance and as a vague threat. One of the Dofan's men chastised the Duke for daring to place his hand on his sword in the prince's presence, but another immediately flew at the Duke, smashing him across the face with an axe. More of the Dofans men rushed in, and as the

Prince stood back, John the Fearless, was beaten and stabbed to death. Some reports claim his hand was cut off in vengeance for the murder of the Dofans' uncle, the Duke of Aureon. John had been the leading political force in France during Charles' six illness. There were some rumours that he'd also been responsible for the deaths of two of Charles' sons, Louis and John. As well as the assassination of Aureon, there were many reasons that Dofan might have wanted John out of the way. There is also the possibility that there was a reason that there was a reason that he was a

rest of the Arminac faction feared a reconciliation that would diminish their influence over the prince. If they thought they'd achieved a victory on that bridge that day, they were soon to be proven wrong. John the Fearless had always shied away from an alliance with the English in order to keep his position in Paris. With his death, his son, Philip the Good, the new Duke of Burgundy, abandoned that policy and made a formal agreement to help Henry V of England. This moment turned the tied so much that later in 1521 it was reported that Francis I first then king of France visited Burgundy a monk showed him the skull of John the fearless pointing out the missing bit where the axe had struck him and telling the king sire this is the whole through which the

English entered France when Charles the 6th was once more lucid he was disgusted and outraged by his son's behaviour at Montereux amidst the military failures of his subjects he opened peace talks with Henry V. The result of this was the Treaty of Tuas, sealed on the 21st of May 1420. This treaty arranged for the marriage of Henry VIII to Charles' daughter, Catherine of Valois. It also utterly disinherited the Dofan Charles.

Henry was made regent of France, an heir to the throne. Charles' capacity to enter into such a legal agreement must be suspect, but Queen Isabel seems to have backed the arrangement and the disinheritance of her son too. The dauphin was furious and declared himself regent of France for his father. His cause suffered another blow when a court in Paris summoned him to answer charges of Lesee Majiste, the usurping of the powers of the crown. He failed to attend and in his absence was found guilty,

legally disinherited and exiled from France. Henry V would spend much of the next two years consolidating his hold on France and trying to squeeze the Dofan out of the pocket of territory that remained loyal to him. On the 31st of August 1422, Henry V died aged 35, contracting dysentery while on campaign. He left behind a nine-month-old baby to succeed him as King Henry VI in England. Charles the 6th then died just weeks later on the 21st of October 1422, age 53. Had Henry VIII lived longer, the political map of Europe might have looked very much. different. The infant Henry the 6th was now legally on paper, King of France too. Making that stick

would prove incredibly difficult. The Dauphin, styling himself King Charles I was resurgent. Despite an agreement between England, Burgundy and Brittany in 1423 to support Henry the Sixth's claim, the arrival of Joan of Arc in 1429 turned the tide. Burgundy broke with England in 1435 and the war was probably settled in that moment, though it lasted until around 1453, when the Battle of Castion is often seen as the end of the Hundred Years' War. Charles VI was beloved of his people, as his nickname demonstrated. Despite this, he was frequently a detached, unaware observer of his own reign. Perhaps his illness allowed his people to separate him from the problems of the rain, and blame those on those who squabbled for power in the vacuum created.

For 30 years, Charles was affected on and off by severe bouts of mental illness that prevented him from ruling. His uncles initially stepped into the breach but became unpopular as they pursued selfish projects with royal power and funds. Then his brother tried, but was equally unpopular and ended up assassinated. His killer, in turn, was murdered after taking power in France. Queen Isabel frequently led her husband's government in an attempt to create unity. Charles' final significant decision was to disinherit his own son.

Was this something forced on a sick man? Or did he see, in a lucid moment, that France was spiraling out of control when he wasn't able to rule? Was he genuinely disgusted by his son's actions? His reign was one of political problems caused by his illness, but also one which demonstrates the power of the French crown as an institution. It couldn't be broken by a king who was frequently unable to wield. his own power, nor by his unpopular advisers. The situation almost led to England's ultimate success in the Hundred Years' War when an English king became heir to the French crown. The sequence of events in 1422 meant that the arrangement floundered and fell apart. If Henry V had lived a little longer,

history may tell a different story, but he didn't. Thirty years after the death of Charles VI, his grandson, Henry VI, of England, would suffer a mental collapse and fall into a a year of comatose detachment from the world. This must have been a legacy of the hereditary condition Charles had acquired from his mother's family. England would face the same problems that had left France wide open to internal strife and almost conquest from abroad. When Henry's wife, Margaret of Vangeau, staked her claim to control of their son and a leading role in regency, it went a long way to sparking the civil war known as the Wars of the Roses. Queen Isabel had demonstrated how successfully this could be done, and doubtless Margaret, born and raised in France,

saw this as the natural template from which to operate. England saw things very differently. The Wars of the Roses was almost a carbon copy of the Armagnac-Bugundian feud two generations earlier in France, except that in England it ended with dynastic change and the end of Henry the Sixth line. Charles is a fascinating figure, even though he's frequently removed from his own story by his illness. In an age more aware of mental health, we can perhaps offer more sympathy for his situation, though he remained beloved of his people. Charles died 600 years ago, but his story can still

speak to us today, a struggle to manage family, life and work that can all too easily have a devastating impact on mental health. These struggles aren't new, and if they affect you or a loved one, you've never been alone in that. There's always help out there. The hardest part is often admitting that we need it. We all need help sometimes, and asking for it is never weakness. It shows strength and an understanding of yourself. You can join Dr Kat Jarman on Tuesday for another brand new episode. Don't forget to also subscribe wherever you get your podcasts from

and to tell your friends and family that you've gone medieval. If you get a moment, please do drop us a review anywhere that you listen to your podcasts. It really does help people to find us. If you're enjoying this podcast and looking for more medieval goodness in your life, you can subscribe to our Medieval Monday's News. by following the links in the show notes below. Anyway, I'd better let you go. I've been Matt Lewis, and we've just gone medieval with history hits.